When bossman says to "Hide"

As I have experienced this, it was because the visitor was a customer, coming by to see our company’s “process” and if I am banging on something and swearing at it, or looking frantic as I try to keep something running (because management wouldn’t give me the budget to replace obsolete parts), the customer might get the real picture of how f’ed up we were, rather than the image that the salespeople have tried to foist on them.

The other issue is that people would like me to “hide” because if someone were to ask me a question, I would tell them the truth, not the agreed upon version of it (with only 70% “truthiness”) put forth by the salespeople.

I come here. and turn the lights off in my office.

Hahaha!! + 1 for dmroeder.

Aabeck said:

I go to my desk, Teamviewer onto my home computer and work on my home PLC's or surf the internet without the company firewall's interference. (Make sure your monitors face away from the aisle & other desks!)

Seriously, take the company pickup to the local AB or Siemens distributor for a while.

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I've been thinking about buying a house (I keep moving so buying didn't make sense, but I might have found a position that might be long term.) and I can't imagine not converting my house to be run with PLCs and IIOT. What are you doing with the PLCs? I imagine having a SCADA system and PLCs for temperature, lights and security control. Eventually I would like to see windows and curtains in the mix. The one gotcha, is if I ever leave I'd have to tear it all out (I don't see myself being lucky enough to sale to an automation engineer.).

You are at work and getting paid. Do something that benefits the company. If you don't have other projects to work on, organize papers, sweep the floors, take out the trash, clean the toilets. Do something.
If you are commissioning at a customer site and they tell you to 'get lost' because the bigwigs are coming, talk with the other little people in the break room to build relationship and improve their image of your company.

Ron Beaufort said:

back when I was in the military (MANY years ago) sometimes the order of the day was to "Mill About Smartly" ...

that meant that you couldn't simply go hide ... instead you had to be in fairly continuous random motion - preferably carrying something like a clipboard or maybe a box full of important looking "stuff" from one location to another ... and you were supposed to at least "look like" you had a reason for what you were doing ...

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This made me laugh.
I think everyone that has been in the military knows this might be the most military thing in the world; Doing things for the sake of not being inactive.

VAN said:

I've been thinking about buying a house (I keep moving so buying didn't make sense, but I might have found a position that might be long term.) and I can't imagine not converting my house to be run with PLCs and IIOT. What are you doing with the PLCs?

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I have several lights in security mode - auto on and off at times that vary every day, and change based on the average sunset time.
I monitor the temperatures in the house, outdoors and the crawl space under the bedrooms
I monitor the household power and log evry power failure and restoration (the PLC is on a decent size UPS)
I monitor and run a back-up charger for a solar battery bank, monitor the charge current, usage current, battery voltage and incoming voltage

I control 7 outdoor outlets. Mostly for Chtistmas and Halloween lights, but have a battery charger mode if I have to put a charger on a car overnight, a slow cooker mode for one that powers a slow cooker for the times programmed.
I monitor the metered power for the air conditioner compressor (that is turned off a lot at high use times) and switch the compressor over to the more costly normal power to keep the house decent, with a compressor saver mode to not restart the compressor within 6 minutes after it last ran to not start when full of liquid
I monitor the runtime hours of the furnace burner, blower, and air conditioning

A flood detector that shuts off the incoming water until it is reset
Monitor the incoming water pressure and log outages
A fire detection system - smoke and heat detectors
Motion detectors, currently disabled because the dog and cats seem to want to move when I'm not home



Plans for adding thermocouples for hot water tank, furnace chambers, dryer vent duct, refrigerator, and more
Plans on flow sensors for the toilet line, washing machine lines, and outside hose bibs with shutoffs if run too long
Plans on monitoring doors and fence gates for closed and locked, with latches to lock the gates securely. Maybe solenoids to lock the doors also
Plans on monitoring the incoming water pH, flow, and pressure differential across the water filter/softener setup, maybe salt level in the softener

Aabeck said:

I have

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Smart home

A little OT but so is the thread.... a couple things I like that I have added to my home and my business

Ring - Doorbell and Floodlights https://ring.com/
SimpliSafe - Alarm and cameras https://simplisafe.com/

I have tried several different alarm systems and the combo using ring and simplisafe works great, I have 6 cameras and can see just about all and they are configurable and have schedules, the alarm keeps adding more features like water sensors so you can place them at your water heater and washer for broken lines also freeze sensors

GIT,


My cameras are WiFi to a couple computer running DVR's, but not tied to the home control PLC's.



For the front porch I just put a OneShot timer triggered by a doorbell button inside the door jamb area to turn on a floodlight aimed at the door to see the lock. Timer & floodlight are 12V run off the solar batteries.

Thinking of adding PLC control for some outside floodlights and the porch lights.


Also, to activate the security lights remotely I have an Alexa controlled outlet I monitor and if I turn it on all the security lights in the house light. That can be turned on anywhere in the world I am connected to internet WiFi on my phone or tablet.


Plus I keep thinking of new things to add in the future. Incoming electrical power, current & watt-hours, frequency, city water ORP, dissolved O2, turbidity, etc. Anything fun

Aabeck said:

Anything fun

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The projects are endless

If I was staying here (moving to NC) my next project was going to be automating the pool and put a motor on the sand filter so I could do a backwash and rinse on a presser sensor, once it started see back presser do a backwash cycle.

Speaking of a pool anyone that has a pool and has not yet, a must is a saltwater system (love it) so much better

Aabeck said:

...

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That's pretty badass actually.

geniusintraining said:

Speaking of a pool anyone that has a pool and has not yet, a must is a saltwater system (love it) so much better

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Agree 100%. I went salt about 3 years ago and love it.

PLC Pie Guy said:

AAAGREEED!!!!! OT RANT COMING!!!

I cant stand this. Its not even that they feel the need. Its just all they know. If they didn't exist on the internet then they don't exist in real life.
We have a 20 something here now who wants to be something, however, he cant look away from it for 10 minutes. He even knows its not allowed but....
This bull*** is even infiltrating my own home regardless of my threats to ban all things digital that don't relate to work. I try to teach my kid (and wife) that its a TOOl, that is all, nothing more. but it seems that I am the only one in my world preaching this. Why the school allows them to have devices at an elementary school level anyway makes no sense to me. My kid doesn't have one, but defiantly has access to one through his peers. He doesn't have internet or violent games at home but damn well knows all about stupid things like Fortnight and Five Nights at Freddy's. Getting a bit OT here but just saying that this madness has to stop. Its de-evolving the human brain.

A person shouldn't feel alone 90% of the time while sitting in a room with other people as this is going on continuously. In the Dr Office, In the grocery store, at work, at the school concert, before the movie, during the movie, the guy driving the big rig on the highway after the movie. Its sad!

Id like to see an academic comparison of kids in this age compared to kids at the same level in the pre-internet days in things like reading and writing.

I want a time machine. Iv never been there but the 70's look pretty cool about now!

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So from this, I gather you are anxiously awaiting the release of the new iPhone in September? Lol. Sorry, I couldn't resist.

I worked at 3M many, many years ago. One of the operators made a bet that he could do absolutely nothing all night long.

He came in for his shift, picked up a barrel bung wrench and walked around all night with it. Never did a single work related thing. It's all about looking busy.

Heavy maintenance looks a lot more impressive than the actual manufacturing operation, so management likes it when a 30" diameter piston is being pulled for rebuild when they conduct a dog and pony show.